The Avengers Take Root

Ye Mo stared at the red dot on the tablet. The signal source in Congo was moving thirty degrees east of north, and it wasn't slow. He swiped across the map to zoom in and found an abandoned mining area at the edge of a rainforest.

Tony leaned against the sofa, turning a reactor model in his hand, but his gaze remained on Ye Mo. Since Coulson had left, the silence in the room had felt a little unusual.

"Are you really planning to send the data to the dark web?" Tony asked, his tone as casual as if he were discussing the weather.

"What do you think?" Ye Mo looked up. "If I really wanted to hide it, I wouldn't have let you see the waveform."

"Fair point." Tony smiled. "The fact that you're willing to negotiate means you don't want to run. So what scares you most? Not S.H.I.E.L.D. arresting you, or Obadiah pulling something behind the scenes-it's someone finding those newcomers before we do."

Ye Mo said nothing, but his expression changed. Tony had hit the mark.

"More and more mutants are appearing. One person hiding, or S.H.I.E.L.D. investigating, simply won't be enough to stop it." Ye Mo set down the tablet. "Yesterday's energy fluctuations in Kazakhstan haven't even settled, and another appeared in Congo today. If those two run into each other, who's going to clean up the mess?"

"So you want to start a group chat?" Tony raised an eyebrow.

"I'm not trying to form a team." Ye Mo stood up. "I'm saying we need a pool of people who can respond quickly. Not an army or a squad of agents, but individuals who can step in the moment a crisis breaks out."

Tony rubbed his chin. "Sounds... like a certain initiative."

"What initiative?" Ye Mo asked.

"Hold on." Tony waved a hand. "Let's wait until Coulson gets back. People like him always leave things half-said to keep you hanging."

Before he had finished, the door opened. Coulson stood in the doorway, his suit as crisp as ever, now holding a black encrypted drive.

"I obtained a partial summary," he said. "Given the increasing connections between several recent incidents, my superiors are evaluating a contingency plan for coordination between individuals with different abilities."

Ye Mo and Tony both looked at him.

"What exactly is it called?" Ye Mo asked.

Coulson paused. "Codename-the Avengers Initiative."

The air abruptly grew tense. Not because the name sounded particularly impressive, but because the moment it appeared, it seemed to flip some kind of switch.

"Sounds pretty edgy." Tony shrugged. "Does it come with a theme song? The kind where everyone lines up in spandex and salutes?"

"It would have no formal chain of affiliation," Coulson continued. "No authority to forcibly recruit anyone, with an emphasis on voluntary cooperation. The objective is to form a rapid-response unit when a major threat emerges."

"Sounds nice." Ye Mo walked over to the projection screen and brought up a global signal heat map. "But how would it actually work? Who decides what counts as a 'major threat'? S.H.I.E.L.D.? Or a committee vote?"

"The mechanism is still under discussion," Coulson replied. "The preliminary idea is for intelligence departments to provide early warnings, technical teams to assist with locating targets, and individuals with abilities to decide for themselves whether to intervene."

"Would mutants be priority surveillance targets?" Ye Mo looked straight at him. "You remember what happened to Emma Frost, don't you? She was taken away for training when she was six. If this initiative ends up becoming 'find one, control one,' there's no way I'll cooperate."

"This isn't a detention system." Coulson's tone grew grave. "It's a defense framework."

"But once it's established, it can easily turn into something else," Tony cut in. "Today it's voluntary. Tomorrow, all it takes is 'your country needs you,' and they can force you into service. I don't want someone pointing a gun at my head again and forcing me to hand over my armor."

The three fell silent for a few seconds.

Ye Mo suddenly asked, "Have the energy characteristics of that signal source in Congo matched any known files?"

"Not yet." Coulson shook his head. "But its movement pattern shows it's approaching an abandoned laboratory. It was once a base for Hydra's biological projects."

"Those familiar faces again." Tony clicked his tongue.

"If this really is someone newly awakened, heading to a place like that alone..." Ye Mo's voice lowered. "Either he's being lured there, or someone already has their eye on him."

"Hellfire won't pass up any high-potential target," Coulson admitted. "They've been screening all along."

"Then we have even less time to wait." Ye Mo turned to face them both. "If you want to move this initiative forward, fine. But I have one condition-there must be independent oversight. S.H.I.E.L.D. can't have the only say."

"You want to be an inspector?" Tony grinned.

"I want to make sure the rules are fair from the start," Ye Mo said. "I have the Perception Network, so I can detect anomalies immediately; you have technology and resources, so you can provide equipment support; Coulson has intelligence channels and can coordinate with the various parties. If the three of us take part in designing it now, we can at least make it a little less bureaucratic."

Tony watched him and slowly straightened. "You mean, instead of waiting for them to build it and then adapting to it, we get involved now and shape it into what we want?"

"Exactly." Ye Mo nodded. "Rather than worrying about being used, we make ourselves part of the rules."

Coulson frowned. "A project at this level can't be led by outsiders."

"No one said anything about leading it," Ye Mo said calmly. "We'd just be consultants. No names on the roster, no agreements signed, no database entries. But information on any decision involving the deployment of individuals with abilities must be shared with us."

"That goes beyond normal authority," Coulson said.

"Then don't do it the normal way." Ye Mo stared at him. "You just said it's a contingency plan. It hasn't taken shape yet. Now is exactly when the rules should be set. Miss this chance, and once something really happens, no one will be able to control the situation."

The room fell quiet.

Tony suddenly laughed. "I like this idea. You're not just shameless-you know how to grab a say in things."

"I just don't want our next meeting to come with a news report saying, 'A superpowered conflict broke out somewhere, leaving three agents dead,'" Ye Mo said. "If we can do something in advance, why not try?"

Coulson looked at him for a long time before finally speaking. "I can submit a recommendation to establish an informal assessment group responsible for preliminary risk analysis and intelligence integration. Membership... would be based on my recommendations."

"So that's a yes?" Tony asked.

"I didn't say yes." Coulson picked up the tablet. "I said 'recommendation.' Whether it gets approved is up to my superiors."

"But you'll give it a push," Ye Mo said.

Coulson didn't deny it. He walked to the door, then stopped. "Next time we meet, there may be a more concrete framework."

The door closed.

Only Ye Mo and Tony remained in the room.

"Think he'll push for it?" Ye Mo asked.

"Yes." Tony placed the reactor model on the table. "He came sooner today than he did yesterday, brought an encrypted drive, and volunteered the codename. That means his superiors are already moving forward. He was just here to sound us out."

"Then we need to prepare too." Ye Mo returned to the screen and zoomed in on Congo. "We can't lose that signal source in Congo."

"You want to send someone?" Tony asked.

"We have no one to send." Ye Mo shook his head. "But now that there's an initiative, we have a reason to request resources. As long as we can prove the threat is real."

"So you want to use this newcomer as an entry point?" Tony narrowed his eyes.

"I'm not the one trying to use him," Ye Mo said. "He's already been dragged into this. We're just not pretending we can't see it."

Tony stood and walked over to him. "All right. What do you need? Satellite coverage? A communications relay? Or... interference-resistant tracking equipment?"

"Make a signal catcher first," Ye Mo said. "The kind that can remotely lock onto mutant energy fluctuations. The smaller the better, preferably disguised as an everyday item."

"How about a watch?" Tony took out a pen and sketched a few strokes on paper. "A built-in miniature receiver array, with an outer vibranium coating to shield it from interference. Seventy-two hours on one charge."

"That'll do." Ye Mo nodded. "Add a self-destruct program too. We can't let the data leak if it's confiscated."

"Easy." Tony smiled. "I'll even add a hidden feature-hold the crown down for two seconds, and it'll release a short pulse that disrupts nearby electronics."

"For self-defense?" Ye Mo asked.

"For idiot-defense," Tony said. "Sometimes the enemy isn't too strong, just too annoying."

They exchanged a look and both laughed.

Ye Mo looked back at the map. The red dot in Congo was still moving, its speed unchanged.

"Do you think... this person knows who he is?" Tony suddenly asked.

"I don't know," Ye Mo said quietly. "Most people are like that. Until one day they wake up and discover they're different, with no one around they can trust."

"What about you?" Tony looked at him. "Would you say you trust someone now?"

Ye Mo didn't answer. He merely reached into his hoodie pocket and touched the metal fragment. It was still hot.

The rumble of a helicopter came from the distance. It was probably a S.H.I.E.L.D. transport, approaching from the sea.

Tony walked to the window and glanced outside. "They move pretty fast."

"Because they're afraid," Ye Mo said. "They're afraid of losing control, of being unable to keep things in check, of one day facing something they can't beat. That's why they want an initiative."

"And you?" Tony turned back. "Are you afraid?"

Ye Mo watched the blinking red dot on the screen and said softly, "I'm afraid we won't make it in time."

The tablet on the table suddenly vibrated. A new message popped up:

[Congo signal source has stopped moving.]

The location marker sat in the center of a cluster of abandoned buildings, its coordinates matching Hydra's old laboratory exactly.

Ye Mo immediately zoomed in. The infrared scan showed multiple heat signatures gathered inside the buildings, with an abnormal rise in temperature in the central area.

"Someone's waiting for him," Ye Mo said.

"Or they've already caught him." Tony picked up his phone. "I'll have JARVIS send a drone over. It can be in position within fifteen minutes."

"Not enough." Ye Mo grabbed his coat. "We need a faster way."

"Such as?" Tony asked.

Ye Mo walked out of the conference room without breaking stride.

"Such as going myself."